In the related art, Patent Document 1 describes a vehicle air conditioning apparatus including a high-pressure side heat exchanger (interior condenser) that causes a high-temperature and high-pressure refrigerant discharged from a compressor in a refrigeration cycle to be heat-exchanged with blast air blown into the vehicle interior, and a low-pressure side heat exchanger (exterior heat exchanger) that causes a low-temperature and low-pressure refrigerant decompressed and expanded by an expansion valve in the refrigeration cycle to be heat-exchanged with outside air.
In the related art, in the low-pressure side heat exchanger, a refrigerant absorbs heat from the outside air, and in the high-pressure side heat exchanger, the refrigerant discharge heat to the blast air in the vehicle interior. Accordingly, heat of the outside air is pumped and the blast air blown into the vehicle interior is heated. In other words, air heating is achieved by a heat pump cycle.
In the related art mentioned above, a high-pressure side refrigerant in the refrigeration cycle and the blast air into the vehicle interior are caused to be heat-exchanged in the interior condenser. Therefore, when the refrigerant leaks in the interior condenser, the refrigerant may leak into the vehicle interior.
In the related art mentioned above, since the introduction of the outside air into the exterior heat exchanger is required, the exterior heat exchanger is disposed at the foremost portion of a vehicle. Therefore, even by a light collision of the vehicle, the exterior heat exchanger may be destroyed and the refrigerant may be released to the atmosphere.